Five Foot Something With The Skinny Jeans
by crystalballbenny
Summary: The five are finally recognized as heroes of Whitechapel High, and are invited to a party. Things do not go according to plan. Benny/Ethan!


_**Title is from Midnight Memories by One Direction**_

 _ **~.~. ~**_

They save Whitechapel again.

And somehow, they finally get recognized for it.

Ethan thinks that they were doomed to be found out at some point and would inevitably be held responsible for the town's descent into madness and their discovering of Sarah, Erica and Rory being vampires and therefore, the desire to exterminate them. Thoughts of not being able to cover up a supernatural disaster with stupid news reports and botched school pranks had kept Ethan awake at night, worrying for his best friend and friends. _What would they do if everybody found out and wanted them dead?_

So Ethan is not prepared to be treated like a hero when he, Benny, and the vampires save Whitechapel High from a girl named Emily who turns out to be a freakin' gorgon (seriously, why the hell was a _gorgon_ in the middle of Canada?) hellbent on turning every single male human into stone. It was lucky for Ethan that he thought with his brain and not his dick.

They had found the head basketball player with moments to spare, pinned under Emily's green stare in the science storage room. Taking her down turned out to be easier said than done, since none of them dared to look her directly in the eye; they'd had to use handheld mirrors the entire time to avoid direct eye contact. But eventually, Benny had been able to roll underneath her serpent body and get her in the back with a hand to the spine and a spell. She had dropped to the floor like- well, like a stone.

All breathing heavily, and Ethan looking over Benny to make sure he didn't have any impending injuries, the five had completely forgotten the recently oblivious and human kid still standing with his back pressed against a bunch of beakers and test tubes.

"That was freaking _awesome_ ," Chad had breathed out, his eyes wide and glittering, and Ethan's stomach had dropped down to his shoes.

"Look, Chad, it'd be cool if you didn't say anything about this to everyone else-"

"What are you talking about, man? Everyone needs to know that you saved my life, Ethan! You guys were on fire!"

And Chad had scrambled out of the room faster than Erica could take a snack down, shouting up and down the hallway: "Ethan Morgan and Benny Weir just saved my life!"

This is how Ethan finds himself standing in front of Chad's house, swallowing and holding onto Benny's hand for dear life.

"Ethan, this is the first party we've ever been invited to without crashing it first for one reason or another," Benny tells him for what must be the forty millionth time, squeaking his hand. "They want us here. I promise."

But even Benny's calm words and smooth voice can't take away the past, and the amount of memories and scars these popular kids have left on and in him. He remembers vividly the times that Chad had called him a nerd and had directed gay slurs at him and Benny. He remembers with certain flagrancy that Chad's girlfriend, Candice, had said very clearly just a week before: " _Benny would be cute if he didn't hang out with Ethan all the time. I mean, they might be dating, but if Benny ditched him, he'd be cool, you know?" to her friend. "He's not totally gay- I still have a shot."_

"It seems wrong though," he whispers, looking at the beautiful frosted glass on Chad's front door and the expensive oak it is carved into. "We spend just as much time passive aggressively hating them as they do hating us."

Benny leans against the front door, still holding onto Ethan's hand, and looks at him with his fathomless brown eyes. Ethan's stomach swoops in a completely different way.

"Obviously, we don't hate each other as much as we act like we do if they're inviting us to an honest-to-God party and we're agreeing to it."

Ethan's breath stutters, and he admits quietly: "I don't even know if I _can_ agree to it, Benny. I'm scared it's just a big joke, made to humiliate us. How can a hundred of our classmates believe we slayed an imaginary monster when hours before they were still shitting on us for liking _Harry Potter_ , huh?"

Benny's eyes melt into molten gold, and Ethan shrinks away from him and his endless hands; he hates that he's like this when Benny wants to be the life of the party and Ethan doesn't even like parties. He crosses his arms over his chest and knows that he must look so small and pathetic, close to tears on the front porch of the most popular guy in school's house.

Ethan bites his lip and continues to avoid Benny's piercing look. He stares at the stairs and in place of the concrete is the image of him sitting in front of Candice and her friend as she tells Ann that Benny has the potential to be great.

"I heard Candice Jennings talking to Ann Price in English yesterday," he whispers, like the words physically pain him to speak out loud. "She said that I was the reason you're not being recruited by the popular kids. Said that you'd be cool if you didn't spend all of your time hanging out with me. Even said she'd consider dating you because you'd be cute if you weren't with me."

Benny doesn't say anything for a long moment, just sucks in a sharp breath, and Ethan is suddenly afraid to blink because tears are building up behind his eyes like a hurricane. It's the moment before the flood sweeps in and carries away everything you care about.

He doesn't even realize he's gasping for air until Benny is up in his personal space again, large palms cradling his head and cheek, until he's got his own hands wound in Benny's thin shirt like it's the only thing keeping him alive. His face is cracked open like an egg, mouth turned down and eyes squinted from the effort of trying not to cry, and he cannot let himself look away from Benny a second longer.

"I'm sorry that you're not loved like everybody like you should be," Ethan says, tears slipping over the edge. "I'm sorry I'm dragging you down with me. But I just can't let you go."

Benny's grip on him tightens, and he looks absolutely _livid_. Ethan hardly ever sees anything but love and goofiness and contentment on Benny's face, like it was made purely for looking like a ball of sunshine all of the time. The dramatic change startles Ethan into holding on tighter, biting his lip to keep from sobbing.

"Candice is a bitch," Benny whispers savagely, moving his thumbs to catch the tears as they continue to leak out of the corners of Ethan's eyes. "She is cold and clueless and I would never, ever, _ever_ trade you for her. _You_ are my best friend, Ethan, and I love you so much it could kill me sometimes. I would rather have you for a lifetime than have any of them for a second. They mean nothing to me; you're _everything_ to me."

Ethan's body cracks in half, and he crumples forwards, half desperate with love and pain, and kisses Benny like he'll never get another chance. They end up supporting each other, kissing and crying and holding onto each other with so much desperation and so much _love_. Some of Ethan still dreads that this won't last and someday Benny will realize that he could reach his potential if only he wasn't caught up in Ethan Morgan and his lame aura. But more of him knows that Benny would rather be cut off from the rest of humanity than give up what they have, and this causes Ethan's tears to slow and his smile to turn up into a grin that is so radiant that it hurts his cheeks.

"I love you," he whispers, this time desperate only with love. "I love you, I love you, I love you."

He keeps whispering this between them, into Benny's mouth, against his lips and teeth, and continues to say it to himself when they finally knock on Chad's front door and walk inside to get to the party. Chad grins at them both, doesn't even bat an eyelash at their entwined hands, and leads them towards the backyard with a grin and some lighthearted teasing about them never showing up.

Ethan's skin still prickles when they make it outside and everyone cheers for them and their supposed heroics, but he relaxes slightly when Sarah, Erica and Rory wave from a crowd of kids surrounding them, wanting to hear again and again about their awesome battle skills that Chad had waxed poetic about all of fifth period. He grins at them, and tightens his hold on Benny's hand. Benny's talking to Chad about Emily the Gorgon and how they figured out what kind of creature she was, but when his thumb begins to sweep lightly across Ethan's knuckles, Ethan's grin turns sweet and he feels comfortable in his own skin for the first time in years.

 _ **~.~.~**_

It's around eleven thirty when Sarah looks up from the pool and spots Ethan and Benny dancing. The fact that they're dancing is not what surprises her- it's the fact that they are swaying together to _Mr. Brightside_ like it's the loveliest ballad in the world, instead of raving and swinging around like the kids surrounding them.

There is a defined bubble separating them from the rest of their classmates; while everyone else is yelling and laughing and dancing like they're wearing _Moon Boots_ , Ethan and Benny are pressed hip to chest, with Ethan's arms circled around Benny's shoulders and Benny's hands folded up against Ethan's hips. They are moving slowly around in a circle, with Benny's thumbs pressed into the skin exposed by Ethan's waistband, and their grins are warm and laughs are intimate.

They are surrounded by the people they've been aspiring to be for years, and have eyes only for each other.

Sarah sighs softly to herself, and watches as they move together with a fond smile on her lips.

"What're you looking at?" Erica asks a few moments later, taking a seat next to her and putting her purple toes in the water. "That's the expression I reserve specially for douchebags I find outside of the clubs late at night. They make excellent snacks, you know."

Sarah chuckles, and points to Ethan and Benny instead of replying to the offhanded comment on food selections. "Those two are the only people I know who would slow dance to a fast song and not even realize it- or care."

Erica's eyes seek out Ethan and Benny, and she too laughs at them, shaking her pretty blonde head.

"Lame," the other girl declares, opening up her _Coke_. "They can do that during a generic love song. _Mr. Brightside_ is for dancing like the world's ending."

Sarah wants to agree, but then she sees Ethan throw his head back, laughing at something Benny's said, sees the loving grin Benny's got on, and can't. She watches as Ethan brings his head back, and says something else to Benny, before they're both laughing and Benny kisses Ethan sweetly.

Their heads come together eventually, smiles blinding and eyes sparkling even from twenty feet away, and Sarah knows that Benny and Ethan are one of a kind.

"Nah." she shakes her head, looking at Erica with her own pleased smile. "I think for them, the music is whatever they want it to be. They're Ethan and Benny, Er- nothing that applies to us has ever applied to them. Everything fits to _them-_ they'll never let anything change them."

"They're one of a kind," Erica agrees, and Sarah nods.

"They're beautiful."

 _ **~.~.~**_

 _ **I'm sorry I've been AWOL, but my job kind of took over my life and I feel off of the wagon again with my depression and I just haven't been motivated to write, so I'm sorry. But I've had a rough weekend and this came out of it in a couple of hours, so that's a good thing. I kind of love this fic, and I hope you do too. I'll hopefully have a fluffy one out soon with a more in-depth author's note.**_

 _ **I love you all to death, and we'll try that Christmas fic again next year xx**_


End file.
